


The Present Predicament

by Kimurni



Category: Rise of the Guardians (2012)
Genre: Christmas Fluff, Christmas Presents, Fluff, Gen, Jack's first Christmas, North is a tired parent, One Shot, Snooping for presents
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2020-12-17
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:06:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,983
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28125081
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Kimurni/pseuds/Kimurni
Summary: North has always known that there are children who snoop for gifts around the holidays, but it had never been a problem for him.That is, it hadn’t until a certain ice spirit found out he was going to be receiving a present this year.
Relationships: Jack Frost & Nicholas St. North
Comments: 6
Kudos: 128





	The Present Predicament

In all his years of being Santa Claus, North had never had to deal with present snoopers.

That was, of course, until Jack Frost figured out how to get into the workshop.

He had been trying for years, and in retrospect, it wasn’t at all surprising. The poor kid was alone, and this was one of the few places he could be seen. His was the only relatively easy to find home of a guardian, and the stuff of legends to boot. It wasn’t surprising at all that he should try to break in.

For centuries, the Yeti had caught him, and he hadn’t had to deal with it personally, even if the boy got himself in more and more ridiculous predicaments. Jack had tried to break in through the chimney at times, when doors and windows had failed. He had apparently tried to tunnel in at one point too, not to mention that hail storm...

But now that they were on good terms, Jack was allowed inside the workshop. It was all a part of their attempts to make up for the past, to make him feel welcomed.

Unfortunately, it also made gift-giving significantly more difficult.

While for so long, Jack had been a general snoop, one who could be entertained by any child’s toy and caught quickly, thrown out without ceremony, now he was on the nice list.

This year, Jack was going to receive a gift himself.

He had seemed shocked at the realization, when North had offhandedly mentioned he was on the nice list.

“But what happened to my record?” He asked, trying to seem offhanded and sarcastic. “All those years of breaking in? Causing trouble?”

“Things have changed since then, Jack,” North had smiled as he replied, bursting with pride for the spirit. “We misjudged you. You have a good heart, Jack! You saved Christmas, and everything else!”

Jack had been pleased with the compliment. The implications of this hadn’t hit him until later.

He had been sitting on a shelf, watching North work, when he’d asked.

“So if I’m on the nice list this year, does that mean I’m getting a present?”

“Of course! That is what the nice list means.”

Jack had looked thoughtful, and almost immediately it had hit North what he was thinking about.

Of course he knew about all the children that snooped. It usually happened because the parents tried so hard to keep the gifts from them, didn’t trust them not to look. It begged a certain chicken-egg question, but it wasn’t anything he had ever had a hand in himself, other than passing judgment on it. (He was usually lax with the children. They were only excited for Christmas, after all.)

But now, here was the snow spirit, looking interestedly around his room.

“Where am I gonna put it?” Jack had said. “I don’t exactly have a home.”

“Your home is with us,” North had reminded him. He was already on the alert, and didn’t want to give anything away.

Jack looked at him with interest, and North could see the excited child in him, still there after three hundred years of solitude.

“But what could you even get me?”

“I will say no more!” North said firmly. “You’ll find out on Christmas morning.”

Mention of Christmas morning, of spending the holiday at the workshop, only seemed to excite him more, smiling down at his staff.

North focused on his work as Jack got up off the shelf, nonchalantly strolling around the room, looking at the shelves.

“Do you think you’ll find it so easily, Jack?”

“Are you accusing me of snooping?” He cried in mock offense, throwing his hand against his heart. “I’m a good kid now, remember?”

“And I am Santa Claus,” North reminded him.

“Yeah, well I don’t think you really spy on everyone.”

North didn’t respond to the accusation. He went back to work on his latest miniature, keeping Jack in his peripheral vision.

Jack had poked around a little longer, as if to prove his point, then slowly started for the door.

“Well, I’d better get going. I hear they need some snow down in Australia.”

“Australia?”

“Don’t you think Australian kids would love a white Christmas?”

“Well be careful not to get lost on your way out.”

“So little faith!”

Jack had left at that cry, and sure enough, Phil had found him poking around the wrapping room.

And so it had begun.

Every day, North focused on Christmas preparations, December already half over, and every day, Jack came to the workshop.

At first they just found him poking around the work rooms. It was harmless enough, and he’d already been allowed to do it, but North made sure someone kept track of him whenever he was there. 

It was easy enough to simply make sure he wasn’t there when he was working on his gift.

Or, that was what he had thought.

That was until the twenty-first, when North had checked with the yeti that Jack had been seen leaving, and gone into his private workshop to get back to work on it.

He had just been pulling out the box he had dedicated to it, one of the gift boxes no one uses outside of movies, with a lid and box wrapped separately, when he’d paused, feeling a chill.

He put the lid back down, and stepped away, looking around suspiciously. When he was sure, he called out.

“I know you’re here, Jack.”

The boy was silent, so North closed his eyes, feeling the air around him. In this game of hot and cold, the temperature you followed were reversed.

He followed the cold to a pile of packages, and shoved them aside to find Jack sitting behind them.

Realizing he’d been spotted, Jack stretched and yawned loudly, looking around as if he hadn’t been a kid with their hand in the cookie jar a moment ago.

“Oh, North! I must have fallen asleep back here,” Jack said, pulling himself up. North noted that he’d hidden his staff behind a line of long presents.

“Weren’t you going to visit Jamie?”

“Right, Jamie!” Jack exclaimed, as if he thought North might believe he had forgotten. “I better go catch up with him! He’ll be wondering where I am.”

“You had better do that.”

Jack had said goodbye and flown off, and North had watched him go fondly, then turned back to the gift, still untouched on the table.

It was going to be more difficult to keep Jack away from it than he had expected.

The twenty-second rolled around, and this time when North asked no one had seen Jack come in in the first place.

He retreated to his room, looking around suspiciously. Jack was right, he didn’t really see everything. But he knew enough to fake it.

For one thing, he knew that he had left the boxes on his shelf in rainbow order, which they were no longer in.

“Jack!”

Again, no reply. North glanced at the chest he had taken to keeping Jack’s gift in. It could be locked, a safeguard he had taken after the last time, and it didn’t appear to have been tampered with.

Again, he felt the air. This time, it led him to look up, and find Jack, trying to act casual, laying across the top of a bookcase.

“Hey, North.”

“And what are you doing up there?”

“You know, just hanging out.”

“Do you always redecorate when you hang out?”

Jack swung his legs off the shelf and leapt lightly to the floor, again acting scandalized.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

From there Jack had flown off, saying something about a heatwave, and North had let him go. He waited until Jack was beyond the door, then locked the door and drew the curtains. Only then was he able to work in peace.

The twenty-third was the last day he expected interference. Jack knew better than to mess with Christmas Eve. Or, North hoped he did. This was the first Christmas since Jack had been appointed a guardian, after all.

Again, the Yeti hadn’t seen him. North knew better than to believe he wasn’t there.

He entered his workshop and stood at the door, looking for differences. Nothing seemed to have been disturbed.

Walking further in, feeling the air, he didn’t notice anything off. He walked around the room, and didn’t feel any chill.

Satisfied that Jack wasn’t there, North locked the door and turned to the chest, retrieving the box.

He was just opening the top, starting to take out supplies, when he heard a rustling. He put the top back, and got up again.

Searching more slowly this time, North still didn’t find a chill.

But he did notice a warm spot.

Pulling the large package off the shelf, North threw the top open and found Jack, and about two dozen heat packs.

“Hey, North.”

“Jackson Overland Frost!” North exclaimed, but he was more bemused than upset, and both of them knew it.

North tipped the box over, and Jack tumbled out of it, landing on the floor at his feet.

“Full named! That’s serious,” Jack said, standing and dusting himself off. He retrieved his staff, which hadn’t fit in the box and had instead been tucked behind the gifts on the shelf.

“How did you even manage this?” North looked at the setup, picking up a heat pack and raising an eyebrow. “Where does an invisible spirit-“

“I didn’t steal them!” Jack cut in quickly. “Jamie and his friends helped me get them.”

“And why’s that?” North didn’t bother hiding his amusement, though he tried to seem somewhat serious.

Jack shoved the box aside with his staff, speaking slowly.

“Well, they thought it’d be really cool if I could, y’know, break into Santa’s Workshop.”

“And find out what he’s giving you?”

Jack laughed nervously.

North put a hand on his shoulder, and started steering him towards the door.

“You only have one more day to go, Jack,” He told him firmly. “You can manage.”

At this he shoved him outside, ignoring his complaints as he shut him out again, at last able to put the finishing touches on his gift, which was to be the first one under the tree Christmas Eve.

Jack spent Christmas Eve following North around, ensuring as many places as possible got a white Christmas, then back to the workshop.

North didn’t bother holding him back anymore. He got them warm drinks and cookies, and followed Jack to the tree, where the yeti and elves were already enjoying their own holiday.

It looked like he couldn’t quite believe it as Jack picked up the package beneath the tree, wrapped in snowflake paper with his name on it. He looked up at North, who nodded to him.

He tore into the paper like he hadn’t ever unwrapped a gift before, which may be true, North thought, debating when Jack was born versus the invention of wrapping paper. The flurry of paper scraps stopped as Jack reached the gift, looking at it, than back at North, then back at the gift.

“H-How did you even…?” He stammered, holding up the necklace.

It hadn’t been easy, but the memories Jack had returned to Tooth for storage had been enough. She had gone back and forth with him, describing and drawing and describing again and adjusting.   
But the portrait of Jack’s old family had clearly turned out well, given the fact that Jack was able to recognize it as them, primarily his little sister, in the locket. The outside was decorated with an intricate design of sparkly snowflakes, a touch to make sure it looked beautiful inside and out.

North smiled at him.

Jack had never been particularly affectionate with the guardians, but now he joined him on the couch, accepting the hug North offered.

“Merry Christmas, Jack.”


End file.
